58 



CAN 



CAN 



remaining old bark to slough off 

 like a scab from a wound of a hu- 

 man body. 



" If any of the trees become 

 bark-bound, you must scarify them, 

 by taking a sharp knife, and run- 

 ning the point of it straight down 

 the middle, of the stem from top to 

 bottom, taking care to run your 

 knife through the outer bark only ; 

 then with a brush, or your finger, 

 rub in some of the composition to 

 prevent the incision from bringing 

 on the canker." 



Sir Humphrey Davy in his "Ele- 

 ments of Agricultural Chemistry," 

 attributes canker to an " excess of 

 alkaline and earthy matter in the 

 descending sap ;" and says, " Per- 

 haps the application of a weak acid 

 to the canker might be of use ; 

 where the tree is great it may be 

 watered occasionally with a very 

 diluted acid." 



The Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Repository, Vol. 111. p. 280, gives 

 the following 

 '■'■ Remedy for the Canker and other 

 Wounds in Trees. The damaged 

 parts of the tree must be cut or 

 peeled off in the spring, and the 

 places rubbed in a fine sunny day 

 with turpentine, which becomes a 

 sort of varnish, so that the wounds 

 will be hermetically closed,and the 

 tree will speedily recover.'' It is 

 said also that bees-wax and tar 

 will answer as good a purpose as 

 Mr. Forsyth's composition. See 

 FvHxt Trees* 



CANKER WORM, an insect, 

 so called, I suppose, from its hav- 

 ing much the same effect upon ap- 

 ple trees as canker. This worm 

 is produced from the eggs of an 



earth-coloured bug, which having 

 continued under ground during 

 winter, passes up on the bodies of 

 apple trees early in the spring. — 

 They are hatched as early as the 

 end of May, and are so voracious, 

 that in a few weeks they destroy 

 all the leaves of a tree, prevent its 

 bearing for that year, and the next, 

 and give it the appearance of its 

 having been burnt. As the per- 

 spiration of trees is stopped by the 

 loss of their leaves, they sicken and 

 die in a kw years. 



The worms let themselves down 

 by threads in quest of prey, like 

 spiders ; by means of which, the 

 wind blows them from tree to tree ; 

 so that in a close orchard, not one 

 tree will escape them. But trees 

 which stand singly are seldomer 

 infested with these insects. As 

 they are the most pernicious kind 

 of insects with which New-England 

 is now infested, if any person could 

 invent some easy, cheap, and ef- 

 fectual method of subduing them, 

 he would merit the thanks of the 

 public, and more especially of eve- 

 ry owner of an orchard. 



Several methods have been tri- 

 ed, with some degree of success : 

 1. Tarring. A strip of canvas, or 

 linen, is put round the body of a 

 tree, before the ground is open in 

 the spring, and well smeared with 

 tar. The females, in attempting 

 to pass over it, stick fast and per- 

 ish. But unless the tarring be re- 

 newed every day, it will become 

 hard, and permit the insects to pass 

 safely over it. And renewing the 

 tar in season is too apt to be neg- 

 lected, through hurry of business 

 and forgetfulness. If birdlime were 



